BIOGRAPHY:
Son of: Martin Michael4 Lehmann and Agnes Katharina Reichert |
JOHN MICHAEL LEHMANN was born 20 April 1862 at Fort Loramie (previously Berlin), Shelby County, Ohio probably at the homestead or place of residence of his parents, Martin Michael Lehmann and Agatha/Agnes Katharina (Reichert) Lehmann. He was the second son and the fifth child of his parents. Soon after his birth he was baptized at St. Michael's Catholic Church, Ft. Loramie (aka Berlin), Shelby County, Ohio. His daughter, Rita, recalled, "He was about 5 ft. 6 in. tall, and he had very dark brown hair." When Rita was shown the picture of her grandmother, Katharina (Reichert) Lehmann, she said, "Dad looked just like her. He had her eyes!"
At Ft. Loramie, John attended school [Source: Census Records] and grew to manhood. Because his family was of the Catholic faith he more than likely attended St. Michael's Catholic Church where his father, Martin, and grandfather, Michael, were mentioned as members and pioneers of the early parish. [Source: Bigot]. He was faithful to his religious upbringing his entire life. [Source: Rita] He had aunts who were nuns and an uncle who was a priest.
It is known that John’s father was a farmer and producer of tile and bricks. A tile and brickyard was across the road from the Lehmann homestead in Ft. Loramie. The remnants of the brickyard were still visible in 1980s. We can probably safely assume that John was pressed into working at this endeavor in his youth and into adulthood until his marriage at 30 years of age. [Source: Rita] As a young man, John attended dances in the vicinity and area of his nativity, and this is where he eventually met his future wife to be… Mary Catherine Mills. [Source: Rita]
It is said that John toyed with the idea of being an undertaker, and possibly had served as an apprentice at one time under the direction of Mr. Lehmkuhl of Ft. Loramie. [Source: Rita] For some reason, John changed his mind.
On 10 May 1892, John Michael Lehmann made Mary Catherine Mills his lifetime mate with John Anthony and Regina Lehmann serving as their witnesses. The Rev. Wm. Bigot officiated. [Source: St. Michael’s Parish: Marriages] Mary, daughter of Augustus Mills & Mary Catherine Maxton, having converted to Catholicism from her Protestant upbringing, repeated her vows to John, the man who "parted his hair in a different way"...fulfilling a fortune told to Mary by a gypsy many years before. [Source: Rita] [Be sure to read Mary Catherine Mills Biography for life from another perspective.]
The bow tie was worn by John.
The boutonniere was worn by John and corsage by Mary, as seen in their wedding picture.
Bees' wax hands were on their wedding cake.
Mary, being of English and German ancestry, respectively, appears to have thwarted her parents’ religious teachings. For a good number of years, the families appear to have tolerated their religious differences. However, one sad Sunday, following a visit with the Mills-Maxton family, John & Mary returned home, and a decision was made to never again revisit. Thus strained relations between the Lehmann & Mills-Maxton families eventually led to alienation due to their religious differences. As a result, Rita and Gertrude never knew their maternal grandmother. Mary would never again see her mother in a social way, and only on her mother’s deathbed, would the two be reunited ever so briefly. [Source: Rita & Gert]
It appears that soon after their marriage that John & Mary removed to Kent Co., KY where they appear to have lived at Madisonville. John is said to have taken a position as a lumber estimator. It was John's job to go through the timberland, look at trees, figure out the amount of board feet in each, and then mark the best trees for cutting. He was called an overseer and lumber grader. Thus the young couple made their home in a cabin in the howling wilderness of the Kentucky woods. [Source: Rita & Gert]
Here in the woods of Kentucky John built a "fancy" cabin for his young bride. Mary had always prided herself in the fact that John had put in a wooden floor and windows, and that she had made curtains for her windows. Evidently the wooden floors and the curtained windows were peculiar to the natives and attracted their attention, for the majority of them did not have that luxury. Neighbors came in awe to admire her home. [Source: Rita & Gert]
Here in these austere surroundings, Mary and John started their family, which would eventually grow to include eleven children. Here Catherine Mary (named for her maternal grandmother) Lehmann was born on 8 September 1892, and then, a year and a half later on 28 March 1894 came Johanna "Jennie" Nora Francesca Lehmann.
During her stay in Kentucky, Mary had saved a little neighbor boy's life. Evidently, the little boy had a severe case of the croup and was turning blue when the mother rushed him over to the Lehmann's cabin. Mary gave the little boy a mixture of turpentine and syrup, a remedy of those days. This would make a person sick to his stomach, as it did the little guy. Mary told Rita and Gert that the mucous was so thick that it ran down between the cracks of the slats of her wooden floor. [Source: Rita & Gert]
Rita and Gert recalled that their parents took in boarders when they lived in Kentucky, and that one of the grateful boarders presented their mother with a mantle clock that was in their home for years. [Source: Rita & Gert]
The family’s sojourn in the state of Kentucky appears to have lasted only a few years. Mary was none too happy in her new home. The snakes were terrible, and she couldn't let her children outside to play, or venture out herself. Unwelcomed creatures were everywhere. Catherine was but a toddler, when one day her mother, Mary, had given her bread & milk in a bowl and sent her to the porch to eat. However, Catherine kept coming back for a refill of milk when finally Mary said something to the black lady whom they had hired. She was then alerted to the fact that there might be a milk snake drinking from the bowl when Catherine sat the bowl down. Upon looking, that is exactly what was happening. Of course, Mary was horrified, and feared for the safety of her child. Thus, at the birth of their third child and first son, Albert "Al" Henry Lehmann, on 24 April 1896, we find the young family residing at Piqua, Miami Co., OH. [Source: Mary Catherine (Wilkens/Wilkins) Sherman] [Source: Rita & Gert]
Since Mary was not happy in Kentucky, the young family is believed to have returned to Fort Loramie, Shelby County, Ohio briefly. They eventually removed to Piqua, Miami County, Ohio.
Piqua has a unique history. Piqua is supposed to come from the Shawnee word that means "ashes". A legend states that before the coming of the white man that a prisoner was captured, tortured, and burned at the stake with great ceremony, but from the victim's white ashes arose a full-growth man. Stunned and bewildered the Indians cried out, "Otatha-he-wagh-piqua!" "He comes from the ashes." Piqua, as a site of a Shawnee village, thus received its name. However, George Rogers Clark destroyed the Mad River Indian Towns that were inhabited by the Shawnee and their kindred tribes. This forced the Native Americans farther north. They established themselves at Upper Piqua, known as Pickawillany.
Piqua's history indicates that a land office was established in 1819, that an arm of the Erie Canal flowed through the land, that Piqua became a town in 1843. In 1894 John and Mary took up residence here where they lived and died in what was known then known as the Border City.
As this writer [Audrey] was interviewing Rita and Gert together one summer in 1984, they recalled a song they used to sing when they went to school, and sang it for me. They laughed and said how dumb the song sounded to them now.
"I'm a hayseed
My hairs a seaweed
And my ears are made of leather
And they flop in rainy weather.
Gosh, oh, hemlock
I'm tough as pine knots;
I'm from Piqua can't you see!"
Four years later came Leo Martin Lehmann on 4 July 1898 followed by Henrietta "Heine" Catherine Lehmann on 2 August 1900.
ca 1901
Back Row: Jennie, John, Catherine
Front Row: Albert, Heine (Henrietta) being held, and Leo
Then on 12 July 1902 Regina "Jean" Cecilia Lehmann joined the growing family with Martin Michael following on 7 November 1904.
ca 1904
Back Row: Leo and Albert
Front Row: Heine and Jean
The next two children, both sons, were to spend a few months on this earth in the care of John and Mary. The joy of their births was soon lost to disappointment and grief. Francis Henry born 8 January 1908 died five months later on 22 June 1908 and his brother, Gerhard John, born 26 June 1909, died exactly three months later on 26 September 1909. Mary would wash the bodies of her two wee ones and dress them, and John would build the casket in which they laid their bodies. A surry would be rented, and John & Mary would place the tiny coffin between them as they slowly made their way with their family to St. Boniface Catholic Church for the requiem Mass, and then to Forest Hill Cemetery in Piqua, Ohio where they were laid to rest. [Source: Rita: who before her death replaced the damaged and deteriorating gravestones of these two baby brothers, whom she never knew.]
Parents Sitting: John & Mary
Children in Front: Martin, Jean, and Heine (Henrietta)
Within a year of the last baby's death, a new baby would join the family. A special little girl, Gertrude Philomena, would join the family on 22 August 1910.
Front row: Jean, John, Martin, Mary holding Gert, Heine
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Almost three years would pass before their last child was born. This child would ruin her siblings planned picnic. This event happened on Memorial Day, 30 May 1913. Rita Marie Lehmann, would be born to John and Mary, and she was destined to be the baby of the family and the only blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter.
For a while after the move to Piqua, the family rented and lived in a home near St. Boniface Catholic Church where they worshipped their entire lives, being devout members of the parish. John volunteered or worked as a maintenance person for the Church in those early years. Eventually the family purchased land just south of the city limits of Piqua, and here a new two story home was built for the family. The address was then at 1140 South Avenue and later became 1140 South Roosevelt Avenue. [Rita & Gert]
In Piqua, John worked at the Pioneer Pole and Shaft Company until it burned down completely. Rita recalled, "I saw the fire!" The Pioneer Pole and Shaft Company was referred to as the Bentwood Company, for they made bent wood for rockers, although their main product was the shafts that would be attached to wagons, buggies, etc. Horses would then be hitched or bridled to the shafts. This was located on South Main Street, and here John worked mainly as a rip sawer, although he worked on other types of saws, also.
After the Pioneer Pole and Shaft Company burned, John worked as a maintenance man for the George Benkert Department Store in Piqua. The girls (Rita and Gertrude) remember that he had the job of firing the furnace along with his other maintenance duties.
For a couple of years before he got sick, he worked at Cron-Kills Company, a furniture manufacturing company, in the Shawnee area of Piqua. Rita recalled, "Although he was not a professional carpenter, he was quite skillful at carpentry. He could do almost anything with wood and often did odd jobs at carpentry for people."
When John worked at the Pioneer Pole & Shaft he frequently would bring home slippery elm gum [from the tree], which the children used as chewing gum.
When he worked at Benkert's Department Store, John would always bring home candy on Saturday evenings in his "dinner pail". Rita said, "On Saturdays we'd run and meet him."
She also said that "one day Gert and I went down to Benkert's Department Store. Dad bought us a sun umbrella with a Chinese design and made of oil-skin type paper. They were pretty and we kept them until they got so old and stuck together--could no longer be opened--and cracked. Mom was very unhappy, to say the least, that Dad had spent all that money for something that we didn't need. I guess she was right and could have put the money to better use, but...they were pretty!."
ca 1916
John would sing in German while sitting in his chair in the evenings. Gert and Rita would crawl up and sit in his lap. Rita recalled that her father was short. "He was about 5 ft. 6 in. tall, and he had very dark brown hair." When Rita was shown the picture of her grandmother, Katharina (REICHERT) LEHMANN, she said, "Dad looked just like her. He had her eyes!"
Rita stated, "Dad loved the 4th of July celebrations. He was like a little boy about buying and setting off fire crackers, sky rockets, Roman candles, etc." This recollection swelled into a broad smile across Rita's face.
Gertrude recalled that there was a chicken coop at the back of the lot near the out-house. Each hen had its own laying box. If a chicken didn't lay it would be enticed to lay by having glass eggs placed under it. However, if it didn't lay within a certain time period which "Dad determined", it would get its head chopped off.
Rita remembered, "Dad always carried a type of coin purse that had six or seven snapped compartments and when we'd ask for money, he'd open a division that he knew was empty to show us that he didn't have any money."
"With a large family, we always had lots of Easter eggs, and each year Dad would come in early in the morning with a large dishpan full of eggs. He'd say that he had found it outside, for that is where the Easter bunny had left it," according to Rita.
Gert recalled that she and Rita would often see their dad out hiding Easter eggs early in the morning from their upstairs bedroom window. Rita said that they slept together in a youth bed with a mattress filled with corn husks. The bed was under the window, so by standing in the bed they could peer out the window to see what was happening.
John was an early riser and on Easter he and Mary would go to early Mass, then come home. While Mary was busy preparing breakfast and dinner, he would hide some of the eggs, then later come in with the dishpan also filled with eggs that would be colored and greased to make them shine.
Rita recalled, "Dad was very active and athletic. He could skin the cat over an athletic bar, possibly up to the year before he died. He didn't work for about a year before he died. He came home one day, and Mom said, `John, you don't have to go back to work.' And...he didn't."
Two of the children died as small babies, while others under the loving care of Mary and older siblings survived the many bouts of measles, chicken pox, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, diptheria, and whooping cough.
As was the custom in LEHMANN household, the sick children were put into the bedroom with their parents. As we know, prescription medicine was almost nil in those days. Instead families depended on the home remedies available to them. The sick ones would be wiped down to rid them of fevers. It would not be unusual to have your chest rubbed with a mixture of lard and turpentine. It would not be unusual to have a spoonful of wine for medicinal purposes. They would swallow a mixture of camphor, whiskey, & turpentine for a bad chest cold. They would drink hot lemonade with camomile.
The LEHMANN children slept on striped ticking mattresses stuffed with corn husks. Adult mattresses were stuffed with chicken downy feathers or plain feathers. Some contained a cotton batting. Other families would stuff their mattresses with straw.
In the early days, indoor plumbing was a luxury to be had. The family used the three hole outhouse until a bathroom was added in 1922. Until then, it was a weekly ritual to go out to the outhouse to put lime over the waste, and then to scrub the outhouse. Scraps of paper and catalogs served for toilet paper in their family. Some families even used spent corncobs. The family finally paid to have a sewer and water line laid to their home in 1922.
There was the wood burning cook stove, Saturday night baths in a washtub, Mass on Sunday, and a sink and pump for rain water. There was the summer kitchen in the basement, which Mary would meticulously clean every spring before moving the kitchen downstairs. There were handmade chairs and tables, croquet on Sundays, and the ice man who came to the door with children rushing out to get chips of ice in the summer. There was the ice cream man with the horsedrawn wagon who would come by with someone rushing out with a very deep bowl to be filled with the special treat.
[Rita & Gert]
Purple grapes were grown on a trellis that extended the length of the long walk to the outhouse. At the height of their luciousness they would be picked for a dinner dessert or turned into grape jam and jelly that would be relished in the winter. Fresh wild blackberries were picked frequently by Mary and the children, which culminated in a scrumptious berry dessert or pie.
Come late summer or early fall, homemade applesause was made from the green apples that grew on the apple tree in the backyard, and some of the apples were cleaned, sliced, and dried in the LEHMANN attic under blankets of cheesecloth. In June 1992, Rita recalled that her mother would scrub the attic floor, then lay out clean white sheets on the spotless floor, spread the apple slices out on these to dry for winter pies and treats. She was also reminded of that large apple tree in the backyard of their home at 1138 S. Roosevelt Avenue and that one year it produced huge green apples which she had "never since seen their like." Dried apples would then be used for winter pie-making.
Mary religiously made homemade jams and jellies. She and the children spent days tending the family garden for daily summer eating and then for storing the harvested goodies for winter feasting. She spent her summers canning in the basement summer kitchen. Glass jars of goodies lined shelves along basement walls.
"The kitchen was large with a wood stove, gas stove, long table with several leaves, and cupboard at one end. At the other end was the sewing machine. There was enough room for most happenings, so our weekdays were mostly spent there. We spent very little time in the living room."
[Rita]
"Dad made a bench with a back which was against the wall, and we could set five to seven of us to eat with chairs at the ends of the table. We'd do our school homework at the table. Dad's group would play cards on it. Mom made pies, cakes, noodles, pot pie, etc. on the one end of the table--one part seemed to be hers for cooking. There was a sink and pump for rain water at the opposite corner, back by the outside door, which was busy corner sometimes with a mirror, and comb box. I especially remember a wooden tooth comb made entirely from wood."
[Rita]
"We took our Saturday baths in washtubs near the wood cooking stove in the kitchen. Remember in those days, people only took baths once a week, and this would more than likely be Saturday before going to church the next day. Water would have to be heated on the stove. The same bathwater would be used by various family members."
[Rita]
The cookstove was a wood burning stove for many years. There was a reservoir at the end of the stove that held water that kept warm when the stove was fired with the wood. Above the stove was a warming section for keeping food warm until it was eating time.
"I remember so well that in May, we'd come rushing into the kitchen from school at noon to hurry to get back at school in time and find no one there. They had been cleaning the one section in the basement and had moved down there to eat in the summer months. The same thing happened in the fall. We'd go to the basement, only to find they had moved back upstairs."
[Rita]
"They tell me that when eating in the basement one summer, Dad for some reason was stating emphatically that he was the boss of the house, and they said that I piped in and said, `Pop, you're the boss of the chicken coop and the wood shed.' They said that had it been anyone else but me, that person would probably had been spanked."
[Rita]
"Almost every winter Sunday, Dad would let the coals in the furnace die down and pop corn in a special popper (with a long handle). He'd fill a big dishpan full. This was always a special treat, so we'd look forward to it."
[Rita]
In Piqua the Lehmann family lived in some rental homes on South Downing Street near St. Boniface Catholic Church and Parsonage. From there they rented a home on South Wayne Street. Later, John purchased some land (three lots) just outside the southern limits of the Piqua Corporation Line on South Avenue, later called Roosevelt Avenue. Originally there was a boulevard in the middle of the street, but it was later removed to make the street wider, although the boulevard stopped at the corporation limits. The three lots were considered to be "in the country".
John and Mary Lehmann built their first home at 1140 South Avenue. (Later, 1140 South Roosevelt Avenue, then even later 1111 Roosevelt Avenue.) It was a large six room house with four rooms down and two rooms up. There was a parlor, a sitting room,, a very large kitchen/dining room, one bedroom down, and two bedrooms upstairs. There was also a very large open attic and small recessed exterior side porches near each side of the front of the house--one on the north and the other on the south end of the house. Eventually the growing family needed more room. They contemplated raising the roof and enlarging the attic area for more room, but the older children wanted them to build a new home, so a house was built next door. According to Rita (June, 1989), "Dad didn't sell the first house right away as I recall, but rented it for several years to first a LEHMKUHL family, then a WEST family, and possibly others which I do not recall. Finally, he sold it to a family by the name of KING."
In 1914 they built a very large 10 room house next to the original house. Rita said, "I was one year old when they moved into the new house, but don't think I remember." This house cost $4,000 when built and was sold for $12,500 about 1951. This was located at 1138 South Avenue. (Later, 1138 South Roosevelt Avenue, then 1109 Roosevelt Avenue)
"Gert remembers how they moved the piano from the first house over to the new big house. The cement porch foundation and the cement porch was in, but not the porch enclosure. They used very heavy board planks from the north porch of the first house to the porch of the new house, and they moved the piano across on these planks," Rita said.
The ten room house consisted of the following:
There was a very large kitchen with a back stairway, a dining room area, a large master bedroom down with walk-in closet, a large foyer at the front with an open stairway leading down from the upstairs bedrooms. Sliding glassed French doors separated the foyer from the parlor, which had an artificial gas log fireplace. Open colonnades separated the parlor from the sitting room, which had an artificial vertical gas heater. Next to the sitting room was the dining room, separated by a door between the two rooms. From the master bedroom one could enter the foyer, the sitting room, or the side entrance to the back stairway to the upstairs. From the back stairway one had access to a small crawl-in type attic. A blocked basement could be entered from the dining area or from the outside. There were four bedrooms up, plus a small 8 x 12 ft. room which was planned for a later bathroom addition. From one bedroom there was access to a short stairs that led into a large spacious open attic. There was an outdoor storm cellar and stairways that led to a kitchen door and another that led into the basement.
When the bathroom upstairs was just a room, Mom and Dad bought a youth bed and Gert and I slept in it. It had no mattress, but Mom fixed blue and white striped pillow ticking to fit the size of the bed. Mom filled it with corn husks and that's what Gert and I slept on. Each year Mom would empty the corn husks, wash the ticking, and fill it again with new corn husks. Gert and I would put quilts or blankets over the top of the bed to make tents when we were supposed to be napping, or early in the morning as we woke. Sometimes Mom would catch us with our tents or making them.
Later, when we graduated into regular beds, as my brothers and sisters were married or left, the youth bed was put into the attic. The varnish dried and cracked, so when Mom said Dale and I could have it, we refinished it in the garage and ordered a Sears mattress that came as close as possible to fit it. I made pads for each side of the railing. Sandra was the first to sleep in it, and then when Audrey outgrew the baby bed, both slept in it together, until we got them twin beds."
Bathroom facilities were added later, but plumbing connections upstairs were put in when the house was built. The outhouse (outside toilet) was out back down a walkway, until the bathroom was completed in 1922. The LEHMANNs and their neighbors pooled their money to have a sewer and water line laid at their expense. Rita recalled that five neighbors went together to have the private sewer and water line installed. "Once in a while, others would want to hook onto the private line, and I'm pretty sure they'd have to pay the original installers each $10, or a total of $50 to do so. In later years the city agreed to purchase the private line, not with money, but with `free water' until an agreed amount of water usage was reached, equal to a certain money allotment."
The outhouse was located at the back of the house at the end of the long walkway. "Dad used to put lime into the outhouse every week and that seemed to keep the feces dry, more solid, and odorless. Mom would take a bucket of soap water and a broom down to the outhouse every Saturday and scrub it. Gertrude recalled how the boys of the family would write in chalk on the interior walls of the outhouse which made her mom angry. At scrubbing time, the writing would be removed. Rita said, "I remember those cold trips there before we had the bath put in." The outhouse was what was referred to as a 3 holer which included a shorter one for the small children's height.
According to Rita, John often wrote down little pencil notes about the first frost, first snow, an unusual event, etc. on inside walls of the chicken coop, outhouse, & garage.
Another year he planted some cotton seeds that were given to him by Mr. King. Mr. King lived next door in our first house, and he had come from Kentucky or Tennessee. That was the first time Gert and I had ever seen "cotton balls." [Rita]"Dad sold the first house to Mr. and Mrs. King. They were our neighbors until years after Dale and I left Piqua. Mr. and Mrs. King had beautiful voices. He and often she would sing "I Take You Home Again Kathleen". To me it sounded so beautiful that it would give me "goose bumps." I remember that Mrs. King chewed snuff. Gert and I used to laugh about that!" [Rita]
"I remember one time that Mr. and Mrs. King had rats. The rats had undermined the chicken coop, so some of the neighbors put a hose down into their runways, and the men stood back and shot the rats as they ran out of their runs. Some of them were as big as cats! I watched the massacre!" [Rita]
Rita recalled, "Mr. and Mrs. King didn't visit us, but they'd spend lots of time talking over the fence. Mr. King often came over, as Dad would have some of the men come over in the evenings to play a certain kind of game called Sheep Head. They would yell, 'Baa, baa!', or 'Go sheepie, go'. They would get quite excited and noisy. Gert and I often couldn't sleep, for we could hear them yelling upstairs. Dad had made some type of scoreboard. I remember, there were identical rows on each side for the partners. There was one long row of holes, perhaps 10 to 12 for moving pegs, as each side won a game. Then there was a second row with fewer holes for pegs, and a third row."
The family was reared in a German Catholic atmosphere. Mary had converted to Catholicism at the time of her marriage, much to the dismay of her family. The children were reared Catholic and attended the German Catholic school of St. Boniface, where for many years nothing was spoken but German, so the older children spoke in two languages. This was very strict upbringing. Rita recalled that her parents would rise early on Sundays and attend early Mass, then Mary would return home to cook the Sunday meal.
"At Christmas we always had a Christmas tree, not necessarily the kind you have today (evergreens), but a regular deciduous small tree. As a `specialty' Dad would select a special, nicely shaped regular tree. Each branch and limb would be wrapped with cotton and then decorations would be hung from the limbs. There were clip-on candle holders for candles which were lighted. One time the tree caught fire. Dad always carried a pen knife with him, so he quickly cut off that branch and threw it out an opened window close to the tree."
When St. Boniface purchased a new nativity set for the Church, the old German cut and carved stone nativity statue was won by Mart (Martin, son of John and Mary) at some kind of a raffle at the school (St. Boniface School). Dad was given the old crib scene, and it was always placed on the floor below our tree. At Christmastime we often strung pieces of cotton spaced on black string and then hung these strings from the wooden moldings that were about twelve inches down from the ceiling, for these moldings decorated the walls of the front room (parlor) and living room. Usually pictures were hung from these moldings, but at Christmastime our strung pieces of cotton were hung around the rooms to simulate falling snow," Rita reflected.
Rita recalled that her parents never fought in front of the children. When disagreements arose, Mary would say, "John, we need to talk over something." They would then both go into their bedroom where they would evidently discuss the problem. They never raised their voices, but apparently settled whatever needed to be settled, for all the children heard were muffled voices in discussion.
"In the summer time, weather permitting, the family almost always played croquet on Sunday afternoons. The horse drawn ice cream wagon would come by, and Mom had a large flowered dishpan bowl that would be filled to the brim for eating."
[Rita]
In July, 1991, Rita remembered a song to which the girls used to jump rope. It was this.
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Rita recalled , "Dad had a very large American flag with the 48 stars on it. It was probably close to 5 ft. by 10 ft. It was hung from overhead hooks on the north side of the front porch, covering over half of that end of the porch. There were button-holed places in the flag that were attached to the overhead hooks. Dad was very proud of that flag." Gert reminisced that her dad would put the flag up just as soon as he could on the morning of special holidays." It was also hung at LEHMANN family reunions.
This 48 star flag continued to hang even after John's death. Here it was hung to celebrate Victory over Japan (aka "V-J Day") in August 1945. Rita sits in the background. And on the right, the flag was hung at a LEHMANN family reunion at the park on 16 September 1945.
Rita recalled in June 1992 that her father made their front porch wood furniture which was painted black. She said that he used hickory wood. For many years after his death, the family continued to use the swing built by John. Below is a photo taken on "Victory in Japan Day" (aka V-J Day) in 1945 with Gert and Heine, respectively, swinging away on their father's swing...18 years after his death. Sandra (Lehmann-Shields) Mast has the porch swing that same porch swing (2002).
"Winter meant lots of snow. Our galoshes had buckles on them and our underwear was made by Mom. As the legs of our underwear stretched, we would spend a lot of time lapping them over and then try to get our socks up over that lap so that the least bulkiness would show. The underwear didn't fit tight to the legs with cuffs like the long winter underwear does now."
[Rita]
"Dad would often start shoveling snow from the walks sometimes about 5 A.M. He made his own snow shovel a little wider of wood and attached a metal strip at the bottom to clean the walks better."
[Rita]
"Of course, there were snowmen, snowballs, and we made snow forts about 3 feet high and 6 feet long to hide behind while throwing our snowballs. The battleground was usually in the front part of the extra lot where we also had the croquet diamond in the summer."
[Rita]
"Dad made a heavy sled with metal runners that held about five unless they'd pile on a couple more. They used ice skates to guide it downhill. I remember them telling about coming down South Street hill and having lost control of the slide, all slid into the hydraulic. The hydraulic was used for the canal and it ran under the bridge on Roosevelt near Garnsey Street. They all had to go home and change from their wet clothes."
[Rita]
Jo Antionette (Sherman) Childers, g-gdau of John & Mary (Mills) Lehmann, sent the following poem to me. She said the following, "I was going through some old papers..and I found this little poem that Aunt Gert (Jo's g-aunt) copied down for me in 1986. She told me it was a poem that her dad wrote when she was a little girl."
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John Michael Lehmann When me prayers were early said Who lifted me from cozy cot And when the morning light had come Who did me hair so neatly part |
Rita and Gertrude recalled that when John would walk down the street, he would walk with his hands joined together at his back. They laughed as they reminisced how they could just see their dad walking down the street with his grandson, Robert Rittenhouse, son of Robert and Regina (Jean Lehmann) Rittenhouse. The RITTENHOUSEs lived about five blocks away. John would walk down to get "Bobby, Jr." and grandpa and grandson would walk to grandpa's house, both with their hands clasped behind their backs. (Bobby imitating his grandfather's style.)
"The accident--it was New Year's Day, 1920. We were on our way to Mass at St. Boniface Church. The accident was at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue, then called South Avenue, and Young Street. The other car came out of Young Street without stopping at the four way stop, hit our car, turning it completely around. It ended up facing the south direction from where we came on its side.
Heine, Gert, and I were piled on Dad in the corner of the car. Heine's hat was full of small cuts. The back streamers of Gert's new beaver hat were cut off and my little finger was deeply cut. Still have the scar. Dad's head was cut, and he was bleeding a lot. They took us into Charlie Caserta's Saloon on the corner, and called Dr. Hetherington. One man gave me a wad of chewed chewing tobacco to put on my finger to stop the bleeding. The left elbow on Mart's overcoat was almost through where his elbow had drug on the street pavement when the car turned on its side and around.
Mart was driving the car when it was hit. Others in the car were Heine, Gert, Lee, Dad, and I. It was an used seven passenger Studebaker sedan. It had push-up seats in the back that let-down on each side for passengers. Dad never was the same after that. We believe that he may have suffered some internal injuries. He did have some back injuries, and for a long time would only sit in a straight back chair." This is what Rita relived concerning the accident that appears to have eventually led to her father's death.
"When Dad was very sick, I remember Mom browning flour in a heavy iron skillet, stirring it constantly so it wouldn't burn, and then giving it to Dad for his diarrhea. It must have been the old way to stop diarrhea. I don't remember how she gave it to him---dry or with water.
Heine and Jack (John and Henrietta (Lehmann) Quinlisk) were the first to have a radio in the family. They brought the radio down and set it up for Dad to hear some special program. Those first radios were very difficult then, very large, and very complicated to operate.
I remember that Mom said Dad went up to see Dolores (daugher of Roy and Jennie (Lehmann) Zimmer) after she was born and that was the last place he went. He was bedfast from then on.
John Michael Lehmann departed this world on 8 August 1927. He was said to have died from a heart valve condition according to Rita. She was fourteen when her father passed away. John was survived by his widow and nine children. A Requium Mass was held at St. Boniface Catholic Church and burial took place at Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua, Miami County, Ohio.
A newspaper article indicated that he had the shortest will ever filed at the county seat at Troy, Miami County, Ohio. This is validated by the records found at the Records Dept. at Troy.
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Photo taken in 2006
Photo taken in 1935
- Catherine Mary6 LEHMANN
- Johanna "Jennie" Nora Francisca6 LEHMANN
- Albert "Al" Henry6 LEHMANN
- Leo "Lee" Martin6 LEHMANN
- Henrietta "Heine" Catherine6 LEHMANN
- Regina "Jean" Cecelia6 LEHMANN
- Martin "Mart" Michael6 LEHMANN
- Francis Henry6 LEHMANN
- Gerhard John6 LEHMANN
- Gertrude "Gert" Philomena6 LEHMANN
- Rita Marie Margaret6 LEHMANN
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